[karajorma]

Well he's guaranteed no one will ever take him seriously again. So there is that.

[666maslo666]

Heh, so we can toss this in the bucket with the next game to come out:  "The Draw Mohammed Game!"  -- as drawing Mohammed just to prove you can and piss off Muslims is equally stupid.

No we cannot, the difference is, gays do not have a habit of actually killing people for offending them or otherwise limiting the rights of homophobes. If they did, then this game would be a good thing and an act of defiance.

Actually, thinking about it, my view on this game changed a little right now. I still consider its message to be reprehensible, but as long as so called "developed" nations have ridiculous hate speech laws, I think games such as this should be made as an act of defiance, too. I guess I just cannot get truly mad at people who are pushing freedom of speech boundaries..

[karajorma]

So you'd be all for an "Behead the American" game then?

[Phantom Hoover]

You know he's going to say 'yes' to that so why are you even bothering.

[rance]

If I walk into a LGBT meeting and shout faggot, I'm not provoking discussion or debate, just hatred. I don't think anybody is being "overly sensitive" by reacting aggressively to media that promotes the killing of their own group; I'm not exactly going to like a game called 'Kill the Englishmen'. It's your right to make it, and it's my right to complain and want it removed.

Also, Valve has people individually Greenlighting games?! Jesus Christ it's worst than I thought! I prefer it to be an automated process than have people allowing all the other dog **** like Air Control though.

[Grizzly]

Actually, thinking about it, my view on this game changed a little right now. I still consider its message to be reprehensible, but as long as so called "developed" nations have ridiculous hate speech laws, I think games such as this should be made as an act of defiance, too. I guess I just cannot get truly mad at people who are pushing freedom of speech boundaries..

Except that he's not pushing the boundaries of free speech at all: He just calls a bunch of people faggots.
People have been doing that for a hundred years.
edited for formatting.

[The E]

Exactly, he's only pushing the buttons of a particular crowd of Internet denizens. Simple trolling, nothing more; with the added bonus of having his collaborators quit on him in disgust.

[TrashMan]

I'm firmly in the camp that nothing should be censored.

The market/wallet is the ultimate arbiter.

Heck, if everyone were to follow the moral crusaders, there would be no p0rn on the internet.

[deathfun]

how tired I am of people being overly sensitive and how easily offended people are by every little thing,

I understand this man! The amount of people that stand up for themselves these days is unbearable!

There's deliberate walking over someone else, and then there's the insulted taking things out of context or proportion
Which happens far more than legitimate concerns, which is probably what the guy was pointing out

There's many ways to interpret his message. My take was "These are the things people get offended by. It's stupid. *Makes game* THIS is what people should be offended by. It's deliberate"

Then again, I'm inherently desensitized to violence and words such as "faggot". Seriously, I've heard my gay friends use that word far more than any of my straight friends. That just goes to another discussion about words only given weight if you provide them weight.

[Polpolion]

I'm firmly in the camp that nothing should be censored.

The market/wallet is the ultimate arbiter.

Heck, if everyone were to follow the moral crusaders, there would be no p0rn on the internet.

Dude, this guy was giving the game away for free. You can't affect his speech by boycotting a free, non-scarce product. I'm generally not for censorship either but if you want quality content you need to abate poor content somehow.

[Vrets]

It surprises me that someone could see a project like this all the way through development without having a life-changing epiphany at any point.

"Hey, I'm working all these hours to produce something, for free, that cannot possibly cast me in a good light, which can only bring annoyance and harm; what am I doing with my life?"

[Polpolion]

It surprises me that someone could see a project like this all the way through development without having a life-changing epiphany at any point.

"Hey, I'm working all these hours to produce something, for free, that cannot possibly cast me in a good light, which can only bring annoyance and harm; what am I doing with my life?"

The game honestly looks like it was tossed together over a weekend. I'm more surprised he spent the $100 to put it up on greenlight.

Tangentially related, this kind of thing seems to be happening a lot lately. Or at least it's getting Ars to pay attention to it more.

[qwadtep]

I say greenlight it and then make a copy of it with rednecks and homophobes!

Now this is a mod I'd pay $5.99 for, Valve.

[Grizzly]

how tired I am of people being overly sensitive and how easily offended people are by every little thing,

I understand this man! The amount of people that stand up for themselves these days is unbearable!

There's deliberate walking over someone else, and then there's the insulted taking things out of context or proportion
Which happens far more than legitimate concerns, which is probably what the guy was pointing out

Which he did by... deliberately insulting people.
Yeah sure, it ties into a larger trend of people being insulted because they are called out on their careless speech, but this isn't helping anyone.

[jr2]

Heh, so we can toss this in the bucket with the next game to come out:  "The Draw Mohammed Game!"  -- as drawing Mohammed just to prove you can and piss off Muslims is equally stupid.

No we cannot, the difference is, gays do not have a habit of actually killing people for offending them or otherwise limiting the rights of homophobes. If they did, then this game would be a good thing and an act of defiance.

Logic check.  So, all Muslims are murderous savages OR only murderous, savage Muslims are offended by drawing Mohammed?

[Dragon]

No we cannot, the difference is, gays do not have a habit of actually killing people for offending them or otherwise limiting the rights of homophobes. If they did, then this game would be a good thing and an act of defiance.

Those "acts of defiance" are the reason why we can't all get along, you know? They're never a good thing. All those people too stupid to let go of the past, forgive each other and see that the other side is human, too. I suppose this has to do with both sides being made up of humans... Drawing Muhammad specifically to piss off Muslims is just as wrong as things they do to piss us off. It's equivalent to harming cows in India or mishandling the communion bread and wine in a Christian church. I couldn't care less for a bunch of cheap wine and poor bread, but they do, so I know better than to mess with those, even though I'm not fond of Catholic Church. I'd strip them of tax exemptions and special rights, but they can have their holy bread. Being a jerk about things that don't actually affect you is stupid (strong words about actual problems are OK, just make sure those are real problems).

Myself, I think that going out of way to offend each other is one of the few things worse than going out of the way to avoid offending anyone. If you have to, offend yourself. The only group that has full rights to use a slur is the one the slur refers to. Indeed, you see that happen pretty often.

Regarding the game, I think it was really an insult to Steam more than anything. Hatred had some merit (though not a lot of it), this was just a pile of manure in every bit. The biggest cost involved in making this game was likely the 100$ for putting it on Greenlight. I'm not really against Steam selling it (the days when being on Steam was an indicator of quality are long gone), but it shouldn't advertise anything like that, simply because it's not worth any actual attention.

[Vrets]

Who is rubber-stamping these games for release? Somebody's racist and/or incredibly tired intern?

[rance]

Who is rubber-stamping these games for release? Somebody's racist and/or incredibly tired intern?

I think it's because Valve gets a cut of whatever is sold and more games = more purchases = more money for Valve. At least they don't pocket the $100 fee for getting a game on Greenlight.

[Mongoose]

Who is rubber-stamping these games for release? Somebody's racist and/or incredibly tired intern?

It doesn't even sound like this game got to the "release" part.  If being Greenlit just depends on getting a certain number of votes, that step is probably an automated process at this point.  Stories like this definitely show that it'd behoove Valve for it to NOT be an automated process, that's for sure.

[Grizzly]

No we cannot, the difference is, gays do not have a habit of actually killing people for offending them or otherwise limiting the rights of homophobes. If they did, then this game would be a good thing and an act of defiance.

Those "acts of defiance" are the reason why we can't all get along, you know? They're never a good thing. All those people too stupid to let go of the past, forgive each other and see that the other side is human, too. I suppose this has to do with both sides being made up of humans... Drawing Muhammad specifically to piss off Muslims is just as wrong as things they do to piss us off. It's equivalent to harming cows in India or mishandling the communion bread and wine in a Christian church. I couldn't care less for a bunch of cheap wine and poor bread, but they do, so I know better than to mess with those, even though I'm not fond of Catholic Church. I'd strip them of tax exemptions and special rights, but they can have their holy bread. Being a jerk about things that don't actually affect you is stupid (strong words about actual problems are OK, just make sure those are real problems).

Myself, I think that going out of way to offend each other is one of the few things worse than going out of the way to avoid offending anyone. If you have to, offend yourself. The only group that has full rights to use a slur is the one the slur refers to. Indeed, you see that happen pretty often.

Regarding the game, I think it was really an insult to Steam more than anything. Hatred had some merit (though not a lot of it), this was just a pile of manure in every bit. The biggest cost involved in making this game was likely the 100$ for putting it on Greenlight. I'm not really against Steam selling it (the days when being on Steam was an indicator of quality are long gone), but it shouldn't advertise anything like that, simply because it's not worth any actual attention.

I like this post. I don't agree with all of it, but I like it. Empathy is a good thing.